Focus
by Skye Blade
Summary: One-shot, High School AU. Focus is key. If you can't focus, you can't perform. Erin needs his focus to perform well on his Maneuver Gear for competitions, and he's done pretty well. But, when Mikasa shows up to practice missing an important piece of clothing, Erin's focus turns to Mikasa in the worst of ways.
**A/N:** Hello, everyone! Skye Blade here with another AoT oneshot. This one much longer in length, and taking a much different scenario than what I wrote last time. It's an EreMika fic, and revolves around a high school AU that probably would've been better in a full length story revolving around sports... xD. Anyway, without further delay, here is Focus!

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 **Focus**

Erin sat quietly in his desk, taking a few notes here and there. Mathematics this, algebraic manipulate that, solve it… and questions. Rinse and repeat for the whole class period, and you'll have his Calculus class. Mind you, Erin was only sixteen. Surprise, he's no moron. Having a doctor for a father ensures you take education seriously, even if it's not his main focus.

School had been a constant in his life. Sort of like family. Always there, but you don't always notice it because they're not the focus of what you're doing. So, his focus… his focus changed routinely. When he was seven, it was action figures. When we was twelve, it was online shooting games. When he was thirteen, it was Maneuver gear. When he was fifteen, it was competitive Maneuver gear tournaments. What was his focus now at sixteen?

Mikasa.

Yeah… rotten luck he developed feelings for his childhood friend who had been there since he could remember. She was protecting him when he was a much scrawnier guy against bullies, (he doesn't like to remember that, though.) She was there helping him catch up on school work, and she even introduced him to his favorite hobby of Competitive Maneuver Gear. Though that last little bit, his favorite hobby… Mikasa introduced it to him because she was a member of the middle school team, and got him into it. It was also here where he found these horrifying thoughts about her, but oh so wonderful feelings the thoughts gave him.

See, Maneuver Gear is a high speed method of travel, it was leftover tech from the war with titans. With no titan threat anymore, these pieces of tech started to collect dust and rust… until Competitive play showed up. Competitions for teams of varying sizes, or solo, that simulate titan battles, time trials of eliminating titans, capture the flag, even racing. It's pretty popular. Really fun. It's why he got into it as a hobby. It's also how Mikasa got him into the competitive scene.

What she didn't tell him was how serious the school takes the sport. Mikasa cut her hair because the coach demanded it. Too much drag, and could blind her as it whipped around. That's not the important bit, though: the important part is that to be as aerodynamic as possible, skin tight clothing is worn, (thankfully, not full jumpers, and so praise whatever he believed in for that.) Both male and female shirts are tight. Male pants allow some wiggle room and keep bulges hidden, but female pants hug every part of the girl, save for her no-no square. But honestly, it leaves very little to the imagination.

His first practice in High School with the team was when he noticed Mikasa. He had already changed into his uniform, and Mikasa had just emerged from the girl's locker room. Erin's eyes picked up every single detail, her smooth and soft looking face, and her highly kissable-looking lips. Then his eyes trailed down to her body. It hit him like a bus: she was eye candy. Nice curves… nice features… things he didn't notice any of that until it was **LITERALLY RIGHT THERE** **WHERE HE COULDN'T MISS IT.** To make matters worse, the coach put them together when possible, as they had the best synergy the high school team had ever seen. Doubles Time Trial was the main offender here. Where he got a lot of one-on-one time with her giving him a close up look. All. The. Time. Of course, Erin was able to get over his initial shock, but he had a revelation.

Mikasa was a girl. Until he actually saw her in the practice uniform, he hadn't really connected 'Mikasa' and 'girl' in his head. He seriously hadn't. She was just a feminine guy friend who did lady things occasionally. They hung out a lot, played games, sparred, told jokes, watched movies, slept on the couch together, even stayed the night at each other's house multiple times since they had hit puberty. Even a few guys from school thought they were doing naughty things. Start of freshman year: never had an effect. He could straight faced, no blushing, deny those naughty rumors. Now, over the course of a full year since realizing that she was a very beautiful girl -who was starting to cloud his thoughts and daydreams- he was pretty sure he was hopelessly in love with his childhood best friend. If those rumors resurfaced, he doubted he could deny them because he _wanted_ them to be true.

He was in deep, and he was so far into his friendship with Mikasa that he simply couldn't bring himself to say anything about how much he had started to love her in a romantic way. So, he kept it all internal. When they laid on the couch together, she would fall asleep, but Erin's mind would be racing about whether or not he should kiss her. They stopped staying at each other's house, as Erin would find an excuse to need to go home or be up early the next morning, because he was losing enough sleep in his own bed without the knowledge that she was sleeping in the guest room. Mikasa was a rather modest girl, so her usual garb kept his thoughts from trailing down dangerous roads, but there was always that close encounter during their spars, or couch snuggling that would remind him of just how far he had fallen, and was still going.

The bell rang and school let out. He left the room quickly, doing his best to leave behind his focus on Mikasa and change that focus to Maneuver Gear. He went straight to the locker room where his uniform and equipment was stored.

His other best friend, Armin, was already in the locker room, adjusting his gear. "Hey, Erin."

"Hey, Armin." Was his nonchalant answer. Basic, sure. He was using most of his mental fortitude to keep the image of Mikasa out of his head as he changed into his gear. "You practicing today?"

Armin nodded his head, "Sadly, yes."

"Sadly?" Erin buttoned up his pants and reached for the bottom of his shirt, "Why sadly?"

Armin adjusted his stability belt and checked for a secure and snug fit on his hook compartments, "You know I'm not the greatest at Maneuver Gear. I'm better on the sidelines."

Erin finished removing his shirt, exposing his well-defined abs and trimmed muscle (bulk is bad for aerodynamics.) He grabbed his practice shirt, "Armin, you're good at creating the craziest strategies on the fly. Even better, you're crazy strategies work. You've been working hard at physically training yourself and practicing your gear control. You've earned your spot on the Varsity team for Capture the Flag."

It was clear that Armin was feeling a bit better after his words of encouragement. He had a small smile, and his slouch had turned into a puffed out chest of some pride. "Yeah, guess you're right." He patted Erin on the back, "I'll see you in the arena."

"Yeah, see ya." Erin finished putting his practice shirt on, and reached in for his gear set.

A few people trickled in, including Jean. Erin's unofficial rival for Mikasa's affection. It was clear Jean had a thing for Mikasa. It was clear to anyone, but Mikasa was an expert at dodging his advances, whether by excusing herself physically, or mentally parrying his suave lines. Jean wasn't a real threat, but it was really good at getting Erin's blood pumping.

As Erin was walking out Jean called out to him, "Hey, Erin!"

Against his better judgement, Erin turned around, "Yes Jean?"

"Hope you're ready to hand over your Doubles slot to me!"

It was a running joke now, but there was still some truth behind it. Jean was (and still is) gunning to replace Erin in the Doubles Time Trial. He was already the Titan Eradication Ace (two 4-person squads go into an arena and kill as many "titans" as they can.) Yet, his real goal was the Doubles Time Trial, as that was the position with the most one on one time with Mikasa. He hadn't stolen it, but kept trying. At this point, Jean played it like a joke to avoid the frustration that still wasn't as good as Erin.

"Not today, not ever!" Erin left as a few guys laughed halfheartedly. It was, after all, a year old joke.

The team did their routine warmups as a team, then split. Erwin taking the Capture the Flag team, Levi took the Titan Eradication team, and Hanji took the time trials. (High School only had Singles and Doubles time trials.) It was here that Erin noticed something very different about Mikasa, and Hanji made it obvious.

"Mikasa, did you forget something in the locker room?" she pointed to Mikasa's chest. Woe be the man who looked. So woe be Erin. Mikasa was usually incredibly good about being organized and never missing anything, but today, she wasn't wearing a sports bra. Mid fall, kind of chilly. Erin had to literally rip his eyes away by pretending to pop his neck.

"…It's at home in the dryer." Simple reply. The Mikasa way.

If only the thoughts going through Erin's mind were as simple. The image of her… features… and their details, was thoroughly burned into his mind and no matter what he tried, the image didn't leave. He was focused on the wrong thing now, not the task at hand. His daydream came true, he saw Mikasa in a revealing outfit (as revealing as she would ever get,) but, his reasoning side of his mind revealed a real nightmare. He was going to be slow, out of focus during their Time Trial practice, and he was going to have to answer to Hanji, and maybe, just maybe, he might lose his Doubles spot. All because Mikasa forgot her sports bra, and he was too damn hormone driven to stop thinking on it.

As he stated earlier, he knew Mikasa was a girl. He knew it, but it just hadn't registered until recently. He was friends with Mikasa before, they were so close friends that they were inseparable. Then, he learned that she was actually really attractive, and that his childhood friend was a really hot, cute, sexy, whatever synonym you wanted to use, girl. Now she reinforces it on accident. Erin wanted to hold her hand as he walked her home. That was his little fantasy before practice. Now, he wanted her to yank him into the locker room after practice, and-

"Erin!" Hanji thunked his head with the hilt of her bladeless sword, "Focus!"

He rubbed his head and nodded, "Yes ma'am… sorry."

"I'll say it again: Just run through the forest as if you were competing. You know, warmup." Hanji picked up her stop watch, "Return when you've tagged all the titans."

Erin nodded, and loaded his handles with paintballs. Blades were reserved for competitions, as replacing napes on targets isn't easy, nor is it a fast process. Erin and Mikasa have modified hilts that shoot a paintball to mark they've visited a target, and 'killed' it. The exercise also required precision, as you only had ten total shots per person to mark all targets. 18 targets total.

Erin and Mikasa got into their ready position, Hanji had her stopwatch ready, "Ready!" Erin looked over at Mikasa, who's eyes were focused dead ahead, and didn't notice his eyes slip off her face and down to her chest. If he could just- "GO!"

Mikasa took off and hooked into the forested area. She was out of sight within moments. Erin stumbled, being those few moments off timing. His first hooks were off their mark, though still could be worked with. It was a serious delay that pushed turned his moments of delay into a few seconds. He flew through the air and into the forest. Ten seconds, and marked his first target. Three full seconds behind his best, and Mikasa was out of sight. That never happened, but because of his awful start, she had completely cleared his field of vision. He flew by another target, and marked it after it was behind him. The gap between his best and current time slimmed by a second. He grinned, and he lapsed into comfort…

His mind ventured off to Mikasa. She may have left his real world field of vision, but she kept real close to his mind's eye. He shook her from his mind, attempting to refocus on catching up to his best time. If he wasn't completely focused right now, he could cause an accident, he could hurt himself, or much worse, he could hurt Mikasa.

Worst case scenario emerged: Mikasa appeared in his vision, heading his direction at top speeds after rounding a tree. Erin fired his hooks to get out of her way, and she did the same. Erin's hook caught a tree and increased the resistance in his hooks to slow him a bit. Mikasa wrapped around the same tree, and out of sight. Crisis averted… then he bumped shoulders with her on the other side of the tree. He had forgotten that they had rehearsed this scenario. He forgot he was supposed to jettison off to another tree, because as soon as he thought he was safe, his mind went right back to Mikasa. She had the higher momentum, so she kept on course, while Erin's hooks detached from the tree.

Now in a downward spin, it was damage control time. It was doubtful he'd be able to stop himself from hitting the forest floor, but at least he could slow his fall to something more easily recovered from. He fired off his hooks fast enough that he avoided a hard, bone breaking collision with the earth, but was too slow to prevent his gear from emergency separation as he tumbled. He tilted and rolled, watching the world mesh into a strange blur of brown, green, and some blue. He stopped tumbling, and was left laid out, staring up at the leaves on the trees as they waved at him in the wind. Mocking him, if they could.

"Ow," was all his body could muster. Gear separation on any participant was an automatic disqualification in a real match. Once that realization sat in, Erin was mad. Warmup runs were usually very relaxing, not stress inducing, and fun. Warmup trial runs were also one of his favorite parts of practice, as it allowed him to experiment. Yet, here was, lying on the forest floor. This was the first time since joining up that he actually had his gear emergency separate. He knew only he had himself to blame for the stupendous blunder, but Mikasa… if Mikasa had just remembered her-

"Erin!"

He sat up in response to his name, holding his head. No cut, thankfully, but it was starting to throb. Just the confirmation he needed to know he hit an exposed tree root during his stellar crash. Mikasa plopped next to him, and started checking him for injuries, "Erin, are you hurt?"

Nothing too serious, but his pride had completely crumbled. "No." He looked at her, and took note of her dark eyes and smooth features… her worried expression that he probably didn't deserve right now. She definitely didn't deserve the anger that was swelling in him towards her. Perhaps he wasn't mad, just frustrated. Frustrated with himself, frustrated with her (for reasons that originated with himself… it sure seemed all of his problems were with himself, despite his thoughts trying to shove blame on Mikasa…) "Just not performing to my best today."

"Are you sick?"

"No."

She checked his forehead with hers anyway, and his already fuzzy mind that was now physically throbbing, on top of his chaotic desires, (lustful as they might be right now,) Mikasa didn't help the situation and his face started to heat up. "Erin, you're burning up."

"I'm not sick." He answered.

"Erin, listen, you're-"

"I'm not sick!" Erin exploded, and Mikasa flinched back, and Erin immediately earned himself some remorse. She didn't deserve that explosion, he calmed himself a bit with a heavy sigh, but his heart was pounding, and his blood was still simmering, "I'm frustrated. I'm just… frustrated that I crashed." He stood up, and Mikasa did the same, "I'm frustrated that my head is hurting," he started listing them off as he walked towards Mikasa, and she backed up. "I'm frustrated that if this had been real, I could have hurt you, I'm frustrated at how you're worried about me, even though I should be worrying about you, because I was the one who caused the crash," she was against a tree, and he placed a hand next to her head, "I'm frustrated that I can't focus because all I can think about is you…" Erin sighed out, looking directly at her, and his face was still showing signs of anger (frustration..? He really wish he could decide before his stomach churned any more than it already had been.)

"What?"

It wasn't Mikasa's fault, but her question sent him over the top. His word filtering processes dropped, and his feelings took full control, "I'm frustrated that all I can think about is you!" Erin's mouth just kept rattling off, not noticing the huge blush that had appeared on Mikasa's face, "I'm frustrated that you've been on my mind nonstop for the past few months -no, the last year!- I'm frustrated that Jean keeps hitting on you, and all I can think about is pummeling him, despite the fact I have no reason to be upset. I'm frustrated that you forgot your sports bra, I'm frustrated at me for violating you and staring at your lack of a bra. I'm frustrated that I can't verbally tell you that I really, really, REALLY like you, more than a friend, I'm frustrated that I can't bring myself to kiss you because I'm scared of how you'll react. I'm frustrated at my indecisiveness, and that even though I know what I want, I can't bring myself to do it." And, to bring it to the root of it all, "I'm frustrated that I'm not your boyfriend!"

Mikasa was about as red a shade as a human can get. Erin breathed heavily a few times, his entire mental state was spilled out in the real world, and someone else knew how he felt. It actually felt good to let it all vent out, however; a few gears turned in his head and suddenly, all so suddenly, he realized the person he told about his internal frustrations was Mikasa. The cause of his internal frustrations. "Ohhh, shit." Erin backed away from Mikasa, not realizing that he had pinned her to a tree with his aggressive stance, "Oh… oh, no." Erin, saw her eyes start to water a slight bit, "Mikasa, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to have that outburst, I… I… you weren't supposed to know any of that, and you probably wouldn't have if you had remembered your-"

Erin was hugged by the red-faced Mikasa, and kissed rather firmly on the lips. Blissful? Check. Warm? Made the chilly autumn weather feel great. Erin didn't hesitate to kiss her back, and in the most aggressive way he possibly could. All or nothing-

"I knew it!" Hanji erupted, making Erin and Mikasa throw themselves apart. "Oh, sorry! You can continue!"

"No… no, I think we're good." Erin answered, his face pretty red. "W-What brought you out here, Hanji?"

"I heard the faint sound of failure while waiting for you all," She was glaring at Erin and his gear that was scattered on the ground, "You do know that is an automatic disqualification in a real competition, right?"

Mikasa jumped in, "N-no, it wasn't his fault, it was mine! There was a bug in my eye and-"

Hanji sighed, "Mikasa, I'm not an idiot. You're eyes are fine. Neither of your eyes show the irritation you'd get from a bug." She redirected her attention to Erin, "So, I need an explanation on why your gear is littered on the forest floor, Erin. During a warmup, no less."

"…my head wasn't on straight, and I wasn't focused." Erin answered honestly, though he tried his best to keep his eyes away from the reason his head wasn't on straight.

"I had my hunches," Hanji pointed to Mikasa, "Honest answer, Erin. If you aren't honest with me, I'll have you taken off the Doubles team. Is Mikasa's missing clothing article the reason you couldn't focus?"

The blush should have been enough, but Hanji wouldn't take it for an answer. "Y-yes, ma'am. I was distracted because I find Mikasa very beautiful, and I was unable to focus because I got to see a bit more than usual, and-"

"Enough, Erin. I don't need to know your teenage fantasies in full detail." Hanji grinned, "But, Levi owes me fifty bucks! Hah!" Hanji pumped the air and cheered for herself, "Collect your gear, Erin. You'll be running this course solo today. Use that time to clear both your heads!" Erin fidgeted and did his best to hide it from Mikasa. Erin knew what Hanji was referring to, and it wasn't something he hide after the kiss he had. She turned her attention to Mikasa, "Mikasa, you'll be playing in a scrimmage against our CTF team. We might need you as a sub in case Sasha gets food poisoning again. It'll also be a good time for you to clear _your_ head!" Mikasa fidgeted, though Erin didn't quite know why.

Well, that's kind of what he expected to happen… though with Hanji, you can never truly understand what runs through her mind, and can never really get a perfect prediction of what she's going to do. Erin gave a quick salute (a gesture only practiced for traditional value these days,) and started to pick up his gear, "Wait, Erin," Mikasa quickly jogged over to him, and before he could get a reply, she gave him a quick peck on the lips, "I'll see you after practice, right?"

"Y-yeah. Of course. I'll walk you home- " Erin paused and tried to shove his hands in his pockets, but missed because these pants don't have any. He quickly recovered and put them behind his head, "T-that's what couples do, right?"

She nodded, gave his a hand a quick squeeze, and a small smile that only Mikasa had. She left the shaded forest in tow by Hanji. Erin picked up his equipment, and began reattaching the compartments to his harness' mount locations. The autumn cold and shade of the trees didn't really bother him. Not then. Mikasa had left his entire body feeling pretty warm, and he couldn't wait to see her after practice… maybe that's why Hanji split them. If Erin was a wreck before, there was no way he'd be able to focus today after becoming Mikasa's boyfriend.

Erin grinned at the thought, taking a test fire of his hooks. He was Mikasa's boyfriend now. Something he'd wanted for a while now. Something that Jean had wanted to be for a few years. Erin grinned even wider, knowing what he'd done to Jean. Erin fired off his two hooks, and catapulted himself to the starting position.

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 **A/N:** I feel like the ending falls a bit flat, and in a lot of places, I feel like I described too much, went into too much useless details, and failed miserably at describing scenery. I am always looking to improve, so if you all have any comments or criticism, feel free to leave them below!


End file.
